Definition

1. Noun:
   • All animals as a whole, all kinds of beasts: "Bách thú" refers to the collective of all animals or various kinds of beasts.
   • Zoological garden, zoo: "Bách thú" is also used to denote a place where many different animals are kept for exhibition, commonly understood as a zoo. This meaning is almost exclusively used in the compound phrase "vườn bách thú".

Usage Examples

• Noun (All animals):

  • Truyện ngụ ngôn thường lấy bách thú làm nhân vật. (Fables often use all kinds of beasts as characters.)
  • Anh ấy có kiến thức sâu rộng về thế giới bách thú. (He has extensive knowledge about the world of all animals.)

• Noun (Zoo - in the compound "vườn bách thú"):

  • Cuối tuần này, chúng tôi sẽ đi thăm vườn bách thú. (This weekend, we will visit the zoo.)
  • Vườn bách thú thành phố là nơi bảo tồn nhiều loài quý hiếm. (The city zoo is a place that conserves many rare species.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "bách thú" by itself is somewhat literary and is rarely used in everyday modern Vietnamese to mean "zoo". The common, standard term for "zoo" is the full compound "vườn bách thú".
• In classical or formal contexts, "bách thú" can symbolize the entire animal kingdom.

Variants and Related Words

• Vườn bách thú (n): Zoological garden, zoo. This is the standard and most frequently used term.

  • Trẻ em rất thích được bố mẹ dẫn đến vườn bách thú. (Children love to be taken to the zoo by their parents.)

• Bách thảo (n): All kinds of plants, botanical. Often seen in "vườn bách thảo" (botanical garden).

• Động vật (n): Animal. A more general and common term for animals.

Synonyms

• Thú vật: Animals, beasts. (A more common general term)
• Muông thú: Animals, wild beasts. (Often has a wild or literary connotation)
• Động vật: Animals. (The standard biological/scientific term)

Related Phrases/Idioms

• "Vườn bách thú" is the essential and only major phrase. The word "bách thú" is almost never used in isolation in contemporary spoken Vietnamese without "vườn".
• The structure "bách..." (hundred) indicates "all kinds of" or "a great variety of", similar to "bách khoa" (encyclopedia) or "bách hóa" (general store).

1. All animals as a whole
   • vườn bách thú
     Zoological garden, zoo